Sport
French Open 2015: Serena Williams proceeds to 3rd round
Serena Williams, 19 times a Grand Slam winner, had to work quite hard before finally seeing off the challenge of world number 105 Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.
The 33-year-old, top-seeded American dropped the first set and faced break points against her unheralded 21-year-old opponent in the second but she rallied just in time to go through 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
She will next face Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who eased past Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.
“I lost last year at the same stage and didn’t want to do that again. It wasn’t great but I won. I was battling with myself, but it was better in the last set,” Williams said.
In cold, blustery conditions, fourth seed Kvitova made it through to the last 32 with a 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2 win over Spain’s Silvia Soler-Espinosa.
In other plays, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Australian Open runner-up in 2008, had little trouble Wednesday while defeating Israel’s Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-1, 6-1. Simon also was a straight-set winner, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 over Slovakia’s Martin Klizan.